As dozens gathered to remember a 94-year-old woman killed Monday in Slavic Village, they did so in a city where homicides are on the rise.
Just-released figures from Cleveland police show 95 homicides have been reported in the city so far in 2018. That's a 10.5 percent increase over the 86 people killed during the same period in 2017.
The 95 killings are already more than the city had for the entire year in 2010, 2011 and 2013, when the number of victims never topped 89.
There were 130 homicides reported in 2017. That was three less than in 2016 but was still among the three deadliest years in the last decade, according to Cleveland police figures.
Dan Flannery, Director of Case Western Reserve's Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education says it's too soon to know whether the rise in killings is just a blip or a trend.
"It's really difficult until you sit down and really look in detail at the incidents whether they're clustering in a certain way, whether they're related to a particular kind of crime or incident," said Flannery. "But I think historically speaking, we're still in a reasonable spot or where we expect to be."
